Interior and exterior mirrors for vehicles typically comprise a substrate having a first surface facing a viewer of the mirror and a second, reflecting surface opposite the first surface. Often, such mirrors may comprise electro-optic reflective element assemblies, which have first and second substrates, whereby the reflecting surface is typically at the third surface of the reflective element assembly (the front surface of the rear substrate) or at the fourth surface of the reflective element assembly (the rear surface of the rear substrate). It is common to include information created on the reflective element substrate, such as safety messages (for example, an exterior rearview mirror may include the message “objects in mirror are closer than they appear” or the like) or other information or indicia. Examples of such indicia are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,189,537 and 5,825,527, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Such indicia or information is typically created by removal of the reflective coating or layers at the respective surface of the substrate, such as by sand blasting or laser ablating the reflective coating, or by overlaying or overcoating a material onto one of the layers or coatings, such as by screening of materials, such as ink or epoxy, onto the layers or coatings at the respective substrate surface (such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,189,537, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference). Such indicia or information thus provides a marked, highly visible and definite indicia or information conveyance that is readily discernible and viewable by a person viewing the mirror assembly.